China Unable To Recruit Hackers Fast Enough To Keep Up With Vulnerabilities In U.S. Security Systems 

Meet a Mount: Peabody Museum Stegosaurus

Taxon: Stegosaurus ungulatus

Specimen Number: PMNH 1853 and PMNH 1858

Year Created: 1910

Stegosaurus was a strange looking animal, but with its long, tottering legs and minuscule head, the Peabody Museum of Natural History Stegosaurus ungulatus mount is stranger still. This mount, constructed by Hugh Gibb and W.S. Benton under the supervision of curator Richard Lull, owes its bizarre proportions to the fact that it is a chimeric combination of at least five differently-sized individuals. 

 O.C. Marsh named Stegosaurus ungulatus in 1877 based on fossils found at Como Bluff, Wyoming, and illustrated it with eight tail spikes. Although modern researchers have since rejected this reconstruction, the mount at Marsh’s home institution still sports the extra-spikey tail. In another way, however, this Stegosaurus mount was ahead of its time. Lull insisted that the tail was held aloft, rather than dragging on the ground, to better function as a defensive weapon.

Two Unique Beetles in Arizona, Kentucky Go Extinct After Lengthy Delays in Protection

I am saddened by the announcement from U.S. Fish and Wildlife that confirms the extinction of Stephan’s riffle beetle (Heterelmis stephani) from Arizona, and the Tatum Cave beetle (Pseudanophthalmus parvus) from Kentucky. 

This will not be front page news. These are not charismatic species and they’re not widely known. This announcement will not generate widespread attention. I predict it may not be picked up by popular media at all - I learned the news from a tweet by Derek Hennen’s (@entoderek), and he’s an entomologist deeply interested in these topics.

Those reasons ^ are partly why I am upset, because I see the lack of attention as indication that people were never given a reason to care in the first place. I did not know of either species until learning, too late, that they are gone. 

But another reason I’m upset is because the dwindling numbers of each population did not happen overnight. According to the announcement, Stephan’s riffle beetle was identified as needing protection under the Endangered Species Act 32 years ago, in 1984. Tatum’s cave beetle was similarly recognized ten years later, in 1994. 

We’ve done a video on the Endangered Species Act, and with that episode we highlighted some of the challenges and roadblocks in place when it comes to receiving governmental protection. The ESA has done a lot of good… but it’s nowhere near perfect. Because of our inability to act nimbly and responsively, these species, and the ecosystems in which they played any number of roles, suffer. 

With announcements such as this - with the knowledge we’ve lost a little more, and are poorer in diversity - I wonder, what can I do? How can I help? What options do we give other people to help? I’ll never have a comprehensive answer, but I will keep generating small answers, sharing ideas and resources, and continue to promote lifelong learning and curiosity. Maybe along the way, we’ll catch the eye of someone interested in helping us fix some of these systems.

Taking part in a predator study in the Mount Hood National Forest. Got some great pics including blurry picture of an endangered subspecies of Red Fox!

Ball is life.

As we prepare for more cold weather this weekend, let’s take a look back at Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 voyage to the Antarctic. Just one day’s sail from the continent, his ship Endurance became trapped in sea ice. Frozen fast for 10 months, the ship was crushed and destroyed by ice pressure, and the crew was forced to abandon it. After camping on the ice for five months, Shackleton made two open boat journeys, one of which—a treacherous 800-mile ocean crossing to South Georgia Island—is now considered one of the greatest boat journeys in history. Trekking across the mountains of South Georgia, Shackleton reached the island’s remote whaling station, organized a rescue team, and saved all of the men he had left behind.